I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the public school system. But before you read any further let me bluntly state that I am good friends with several teacher and other school personnel. I am in no way blaming or shaming them, instead, I think the whole system in North Carolina needs to be overhauled and made better. Public school is really the one of  only two viable options in my rural area. The other option would be home schooling and we don’t feet this is appropriate at this time either.

I refuse to fundraise for the school. It is not that I don’t think the school does not need or deserve extra monies but for me it is a matter of economics.  Currently, we have 3 children in Elementary school, therefore in order to participate in any fundraising we would be expected to sell 3 times the amount. For example, each child is expected to sale 5  items, in order for us to participate we would need to sale 15 items. Another example is the magazine sale, no cost to you simply fill out 4 to 6 post cards with the name and address of family members. Sounds simple enough but even with a large family we don’t have 24 relatives that children are not in the same area to send these too and do I seriously want to send 3 times the junk mail to anyone?

Now that we have established those simple facts, let me start the real rant. I am sick of my children’s “free public education” costing more and more and more each week. To begin the school year, I paid school dues $7 each and purchased T-shirts in the appropriate color for each child to wear on fieldtrip and as part of “Titan Tuesday” each week.  $51 dollars before the first day of school. To purchase a school lunch is $2.85 a day for each child, or $8.55 a day or $42.75 a week or $171 a month. Needless to say,  none of the kids eats school food. I could and do feed all 5 of us at least 2 meals a day for this same $8.55.   The first week of school, we received a notice and each of the kids was excited that they would be have “Future Fridays” this year. Each children should wear a shirt that represents their favorite high school or college. Does not sound like a bad idea until you do a bit of math 3 t-shirts at $20 a piece, which really is a low figure equals $60 for my family.  This provided us with the opportunity to have both Kendall and Lily do math and discussed our priorities as a family. Guess what purchasing and participating in “future Fridays” did not make the list. Fortunately for use both school lunches and college t-shirts were an easy discussion to have with the kids.

“Fundraising opportunities” were easily addressed the first of September with a simple we don’t participate. The next request become a little bit harder but yet not impossible to deny. This was a request from the 2nd grade teachers that we “Donate” $20 so they can purchase a classroom software pack. Another no… I will gladly donate goldfish, paper towels, Kleenx  or just about anything else (except candy) the class needs but not cash.

Next up in the category of things that we have to pay for at public school fieldtrips. Yes, they can be educational and yes the kids enjoy them but since when does it cost $18 and $14 for a fieldtrip. Just for the record, I did pay both of these without too much complaint but still.

Finally school pictures, I love pictures and I have always at least purchased an 8×10 for each grade. This year that will equal a total of $72 spent on school pictures. The bright side, I can purchase online instead of writing three separate checks.